In a bid to promote a circular economy for plastic packaging, Swiss industry and trade, along with several associations, are putting the focus on product design and improved recyclability. By adopting a "design for recycling" approach, packaging is to be designed right from the outset for end-of-life recycling.

To implement this approach, players from across the value chain set up the Allianz Design for Recycling Plastics (Basel / Switzerland; www.design4recycling.org) in June 2018. Since then, the number of partners and advisory board members has increased. As of September, membership of the alliance includes Swiss packaging manufacturers Biplast (Sitterdorf; www.biplast.ch) and Semadeni Plastics (Ostermundigen; www.semadeni.com), brand manufacturer Mibelle and commercial firms Aldi Suisse and Migros as well as Müller Recycling (Frauenfeld; www.mueller-recycling.ch) and Swiss PET recycling association Verein PET-Recycling Schweiz (PRS, Zurich; www.petrecycling.ch). From a technical and scientific angle, the alliance is receiving support from the Swiss Centre for Efficiency and Staub Technologie.

The members of the advisory board include industry associations Swiss Recycling (umbrella organisation for Swiss recycling systems) and the Swiss Retail Federation (association of medium-sized retail companies) plus the KATZ Plastics Training and Technology Centre and government environmental authorities.

Most of the plastic packaging used today either cannot be recycled at all or can only be recycled at a high cost. The alliance is setting out to make recycling in Switzerland simpler, of higher quality and more marketable – while, at the same time, reducing the environmental burden due to plastic packaging. The alliance partners have concluded that a pure, high-quality starting product forms the basis for recycling and circular economy.

It is not only a matter of developing plastic packaging that, while theoretically recyclable, will still end up being incinerated. For an innovative approach to closing the loop for packaging, not only quality but also cost efficiency must be boosted, runs the credo. This could, for example, be achieved through the introduction of specific incentives for the use of recycled plastics.

The Swiss recycling alliance will first focus on plastic bottles for shampoo, detergents and cleaning agents. A working group made up of producers, bottlers, distributors and processors has drawn up guidelines for the recycling-friendly design of hollow plastic articles for the Swiss market. These have been derived from existing international guidelines and adapted for Switzerland. They constitute a voluntary recommendation for industry and trade.